You know, at Architectural Classics we all love old things – but we aren’t biased! There are plenty of new things we love too, and some of those are the advances in science and technology that mean we can do things faster and more efficiently. Efficiency is so important when it comes to your energy use – fossil fuels are limited, and we don’t feel very enthused about selling lumps of coal as antique oddities in years to come!

The doors that you put all your gorgeous door knockers, handles, locks and plates onto can make quite a difference to how energy efficient your home is. This is one case when older is not necessarily better … modern doors are generally made out of better quality wood than older ones, and tradespeople now have better tools with which to hang the door. So, to improve your energy efficiency with a minimum of disruption to the style of your house, one option is just to replace all of the old doors that you have with the most similar looking new one you can find, and then have them professionally installed.

The best, cheapest, quickest and least disruptive way to increase your energy efficiency though, is to buy weatherstripping for your doors. This is especially valuable if you live in an old house, as well as loving having old things in your house! As older doors are generally leakier and draughtier than newer ones, this is a cheap quick, and pretty necessary step to take in improving your energy efficiency! Incidentally.

Find air leaks in your home

You can also weatherstrip windows to make them much more energy efficient. To weatherstrip a door or a window:
First note any major air leaks in your home. If you don’t do this, you don’t know whether all your stripping efforts (!) will be wasted, because you have bigger problems than just a little old door draught… you can either hire a professional to do an energy audit, including a blower door test. If you like doing things the easy but expensive way, this will be good! You get a plan of your house with all the leak locations plotted.

If you prefer to DIY, the first step in detecting air leaks is to use your eyes. Look around commonly leaky areas, such as door and window frames, mail chutes, utility cable entrances, dryer vents, around air conditioners, and vents and exhaust fans. You can seal smaller leaks with gap filler from any hardware store, or may need to call in a builder or at least get advice from one before sealing larger leaks.

If the tricky little buggers are evading you, you can do your own version of the blower door test by depressurising your home. First, turn off all your heating on a cool and very windy day. Shut all windows and doors and turn off exhaust fans. Then light an incense stick and pass it around the edges of commonly leaky places. You’ll see the smoke either being blown away from the wall or sucked towards it if there is a draught.

Weatherstrip your windows and doors

When you are all set, with your hidden leaks exposed and removed, it is time to weatherstrip your windows and doors. As with all modifications to old homes, you have a choice between cheapness, convenience and ease of installation, and having traditional and durable materials, and not compromising in the ‘look’ of your home. Felt and metal are good, traditional choices – with metal used in heavier traffic areas and felt in the lower traffic ones (unless you are okay with changing it every few months). That said, metal is not really an option for windows.

Metal weatherstripping consists of a vinyl or foam backing with a metal front, and works and looks best when the leak is around the bottom or opening edge of a door. You may need a professional to cut and install it … unless you are an especially handy person! Felt is easy to install as weatherstripping – simply buy the thickest felt you can from a haberdashery shop, and apply it with staples, glue or double sided tape to the leaky edges of your doors and windows. If you are stapling it on, staple parallel to the length of the strip, for better sealing. Felt can also colour coordinate nicely, if you are so inclined!

Vinyl and foam weatherstripping which is easy to install is readily available from hardware stores, complete with installation instructions. Just consider that it is often coloured yellow or white … and stands out like nothing else! It is often made of paintable material, though, so could easily be spray painted (not brush painted) before you install it.

Solid wood is your best bet

When it comes to your actual choice of door, solid wood is naturally your best bet. Glass sliding doors and big bay windows are terrible at keeping your home heated or cooled. If you are not particularly attached to the actual glass used (it isn’t original, old or has any personal value), you can get much better efficiency by installing double-glazed glass, which has two panes separated by a pocket of air. For twice the glass, you have more than double the energy efficiency. If you add heavy curtains with pelmets on top (actually more popular in old than new homes…), your glass doors will be much better on your hip pocket and the planet. The same technique can be applied to glass panels inset into wooden doors, and your regular windows. The only place this won’t work is where you have leadlighting or cut glass … beautiful, but definitely not efficient! Just try to keep heat sources away from these windows – let them at least warm up the air between themselves and the door before it is wasted.

Another option does mean a small compromise on the exterior look of your old home, but can mean big savings on your energy consumption where you have glass panelled doors, can’t apply weatherstripping, or just want to be a bit more efficient.. You can purchase exterior doors now which have a steel skin over a polyurethane foam inner, which even by themselves are twice as energy efficient as a normal wooden door. They do have a security door look … however if you have security doors already, these new doors can serve both purposes. When your actual doors are older, this is a good option for saving energy, but if you have newer doors anyway, the energy savings would take a while to offset the expense of installing the door.

And one last tip… to prevent new leaks, be cautious when installing the gorgeous door knobs you buy from us!

More information: eere.energy.gov

Photo credits: Freezing by Scott Kessler Draft by Barca_Branca Open Cell Weatherstripping by lonnypaul

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